FDA To Lift Blood Ban

Posted on December 30, 2014

The FDA is ending the lifetime ban on blood donation by gay and bisexual men. It's replacing the lifetime ban with a ban on blood donation by men who've had sex with a man in the past year. While it's progress to eliminate the discriminatory and irrational lifetime ban, the change doesn't go far enough and will continue to exclude most gay and bisexual men from donating blood. Modern HIV testing allows detection of the HIV virus within two weeks of infection. There's no public health rationale to extend the ban for a full year after sexual contact. Moreover, the ban continues to ignore the fact that sexually active straight people are also at risk. It's time to end this discrimination.